BHUBANESWAR: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that a Tripura-like result will be repeated in Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday asserted that BJD will perform very well in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. “We (BJD) will do very well in the elections. I have said it before. You will see,” Naveen said replying to a question on the Prime Minister’s statement on Sunday that Odisha will have poll results like Tripura.
Modi had said Odisha will be the second Tripura, where BJP had won a comfortable majority in the last Assembly elections and formed the Government dismantling the 25-year-old Left Front rule. “Odisha will surprise everybody in the country this time ... It will be a second Tripura,” Modi said, implying that BJP is poised to post an impressive election result in Odisha and dislodge BJD which is in power in the State for the last 19 years.
The Prime Minister said this while addressing Main Bhi Chowkidar programme via video-conferencing from Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi. Talking to fishermen of Mahakalpada in Kendrapara district through video-conferencing, Modi said the BJP has a good base in Odisha and he was quite impressed by the huge turnout of the people and their enthusiasm during his recent visit to Odisha to campaign for his party candidates.
Modi, who launched his election campaign in Odisha from Jeypore on March 29, is scheduled to hold two more election rallies in the State in the first week of April, at Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district on April 2 and in Sundargarh on April 6.The Chief Minister, while launching the BJD’s campaign at Nayagarh on March 24, had claimed that BJD will win all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming polls.
However, the BJP hes set a target to win at least 120 Assembly seats out of 147 in line with its Mission 120+ in Odisha. In 2014, BJP had won only 10 of the State’s 147 Assembly seats and one of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.